Reflections on American politics from one who thinks the republic needs constant attention.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Making Sense of Our Smoke and Mirrors Politics

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Making Some Sense of the Smoke and Mirrors

P. Schultz

May 3, 2015

“Sometimes the light’s all shining on me. Other times I can
barely see. Lately it occurs to me: What a long, strange trip it’s been.” The
Grateful Dead

To cut to
the chase, the political project that has been aborning for some time, but
especially since the demise of the Soviet Union is one that aims at
“surveillance, work discipline, and social control.” [p. 128, The Utopia of Rules, David Graeber] That
is, our politics is “part of an all-out effort to follow the technological
humbling of the Soviet Union with total victory in the global class war: not
only the imposition of absolute U.S. military dominance overseas, but the utter
rout of social movements at home.” [p. 128]

And this
kind of politics is advanced by those appearing in the guise or, rather, the
disguise of “neoliberalism,” making what appear to be economic arguments, that
is, “pro-market” arguments, to advance their political agenda. What appears to be
an agenda of minimal government is actually an agenda of maximizing
bureaucracy, even if not always governmental bureaucracy. And the results are:
“A timid bureaucratic spirit [that] has come to suffuse every aspect of
intellectual life . . . [while] more often than not, [coming] cloaked in the
language of creativity, initiative, and entrepreneurialism.” [p. 137]

But, of
course, this “language is meaningless.” [p. 137] That is, it has no relation to
what is actually going on, no relation to the intended goals of those guardians
who have power and aim to keep it. This could be labeled a politics of the
status quo but it is not simply that. It does seek to preserve the status quo
in terms of who actually wields power; but it seeks also to do far more than
simply continue or “conserve” the character of U.S. society. It seeks to
advance or create a society dedicated to “surveillance, work discipline, and
social control . . . thus achieving a decisive victory in what U.S. elites . .
. indeed see as a global class war.” [p. 128, 130]

That this
line of argument makes sense is underlined by such bad arguments from these
“neoliberals” as, “destroying job security while increasing working hours
[will] create a more productive . . . workforce,” an argument that “there is
every reason to believe [is] exactly the opposite” of what takes place. “In
purely economic terms the result of neoliberal reform of labor markets is
almost certainly negative . . . However [this argument] has been spectacularly
effective in depoliticizing labor.” [p.129] Meanwhile, there has been “the
burgeoning growth in armies, police, and private security services [which] are
utterly unproductive – nothing but a resource sink.” [p. 129-130]